Блог пользователя bully....maguire

Автор bully....maguire, история, 4 года назад, По-английски

This post is on serious issue. Currently my level is DIV2-C,D (during contest i am mostly able to solve C and sometimes D) . Whenever i fail to solve any problem (say D) and i see editorial i am able to understand the solution very quickly most of the times .

But when i see solution(editorial) for problem E or F , sometimes i find difficult to understand the editorial itself ! Why ? Because most authors write solution in a way which can be only understood by person who is able to solve problems of that difficulty level most of the time .

But the problem is it becomes difficult for people to improve fast.They either do not upsolve or take days to figure out what editorial want's to say . Now some RED people might say that editorial don't explain fully or give proper details because they want YOU TO THINK . But editorial can be written by adding spoilers such that a person first tries on his own to understand and then if not able to he can read the spoiler .Please see following editorial written by T.M William Link .In difficult problems authors can explain the solution using an concrete example.I want such type of editorial on coding platforms.That is education ! First try on your own and if not able to succeed seek the help ! you can't keep figuring out whole life.

May be time is issue for writing good editorials .But quality > time .Take 1/2 day for releasing the tutorial but write them properly .

You can see past contests and observe that number of people who upsolve a problem (D/E/F) is proportional to the quality of editorial .Else people keep commenting to explain them properly in simple words etc .

I will also accept suggestions from people on how to read editorial properly .

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4 года назад, # |
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Maybe be real and post it from your original account? You don't seem to solve any problems on this one.

Note: This is my POV. Feel free to differ.

I find it great to have editorials that don't provide you a complete solution, and ask you to think further yourself. Reason being that unless you adapt or mutate yourself to think hard enough, it's going to be impossible for one to solve hard problems, in general. Knowing that there exists an editorial out there providing an insight to the solution may or may not spoil the problem for some people who are not motivated enough. I sometimes am very tempted to look at editorials when I've tried for multiple days and haven't been able to come up with a solution, though I tend to restrain myself as much as I can. I feel it'd be much better if problems here were Project Euler type i.e. you unlock the editorial only after solving the problem. This would force you to do your own research and come up with something solid, and hence, improving your thought process and problem solving capabilities. I've been stuck at PE Problem 54 since the last 4 days and am still trying hard to figure it out. I feel like once I've solved the problem myself, I would be more complete, in a way, with my knowledge and failures in having solved the problem. Honestly, I feel that if one is motivated enough like myself to become red one day, then looking for solutions in editorials is not the way to go. Critical problem solving skills only come through thinking by yourself, for yourself.

you can't keep figuring out whole life

Coming from someone who's grey, this might seem a little weird, but people do put in their entire life span into solving only one particular problem. I don't need to give you examples, googling will give you enough. Realistically speaking, I hate to agree, but you are right. But there are some people (I consider myself as one) that will ask help from others (maybe rarely) rather than looking at a solution/editorial until having solved a certain problem. It's all in the motivation that drives you to do anything in life, well CP here, and the place where you see yourself at down the line given that you put in effort and time. Results do not come in a day.

That is education

No, that isn't. Education is not about being able to solve problems, or let's say, all kind of problems in every subject. Education is more about being able to understand and learn from what has been given to you, from your attempts and failures. If you look at education as merely solving problems, maybe CP isn't the right thing for you to do, just saying, and something where you feel educated with an education would suit you better.

On writing of editorials

Also, writing editorials is not an easy thing to do. Takes a lot of time and work, more than a sane person would be willing to put in, but you've already covered that point. Another problem is the language. It could be possible that not everyone is well versed in English and happens to have a badly written editorial. You can hardly blame them for that, can you?

One of my favourite quotes: _ “A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” — William James._

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4 года назад, # |
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No one is going to spoon feed you an explanation exactly to your taste. If you were able to understand the editorial as easy as reading for pleasure, it wouldn't be a hard problem then would it? Problem setters are going to put editorials in a manner of universal notation so it can be understood from people of all backgrounds, but that may not be the best way you learn but that is just something you have to get used too, unless you want to get a tutor or something to explain it with analogies or examples or whatever.

And to most people, time is > quality too, for both the people after contest who want to know the solution and the problem setters who have to take to the time to do it, though i am sure problem setters do take care in writing good editorials from their perspective because if they're taking the time to make the contest they probably also want a nice editorial.

Hard problems from one's point of view should be by definition not obvious to understand, so just get used to having to think about why editorial makes sense because it only gets harder with more complicated topics.